Captains please send your line-ups to either stemayf (yellow) and Onyx Puffin (orange) as the 2 confirmed TDs. You can PM you lineups (3 players) to either, though we suggest you don't PM the TD in your league.

I used templates with placeholders for names, results and points just like for League Season 7 - Editing shouldn't be that hard, just try...but only use the "EDIT" button at the top of a page, not those ones on the right hand side!

120:134 abonentment for long tix for me Van-Mon+ Calary-Saltlake normaly winner tix but not vs Cat, she plays longtrack La-Miami + Toronto-Miami and get longest with me. I am finding this game many of lokos. She draw and finding nothing. Hug Cat

077:113 what for a decesion with start for me. Keep denver elpaso with portphonix or ssm-oakla ? i keep ssm-oakla and at least it was the best option, cause my track cross with her van-mon and denver-pitts. she only complete 20 and without 11 no chance.

Thanks Cat and the Team TCT for the nice clash,have fun and good luck in your last game versus G70 Stemayf Mister Lupo.
Realy very hard games Cat and i give my best to beat you. Only luck was on my side this day. More luck for you in your future games for your nice Team.

2. Can someone from Purple and Yellow start threads to put the games results for your grouping? Otherwise this thread could get very long.
Preference is to put in schedule of games here so people can know when to watch matches; but in reflection, we do not need to see results here. We can read about the match in the other threads.

Can I draw your attention to the rules for the QF and SF stages, as was used in last year's tournament. Unfortunately, I forgot to include these in this year's rules. I hope we are all ok with these rules.

Feel free to comment about the length of the rounds. These rules talk about a 2-week period for each round, which is probably too long. There seems to be a consensus that we can complete 2 legs in 7-10 days.

G70 stemayf wrote on Sun, 14 February 2010 14:23

The vote for the QF chose 'D' - a new draw. The rules have been amended to include the new draw, and the SF rule 11.2 now dictates how the bracket will run. It should keep the 2 highest ranked league winners in opposite halves of the draw, and therefore they will only meet in the final.

League winners will be matched against a league runner-up from one of the 3 other leagues. They cannot play the runner up from their own league during the QF stage. Of course, given the randomness of the draw, and the nature of a possible QF upset, they may meet again in either the SF or Final.

Sorry to have used colours again, and to make it sound complex. In reality it is not complicated. The draw should take about 5 minutes. I'll post again to confirm the date and time of this new draw.

Captains, feel free to PM me if you feel I've either missed something or made a mistake.

G70 stemayf wrote on Sun, 14 February 2010 14:15

Amended Section 10 in light of the recent vote:

10. Quarter-final stage

10.1 The Quarter-final stage will comprise 8 teams, the 4 league winners and the 4 league runners-up.

10.2 A new random draw will be held to matchup quarter-final opponents. In each case, a league winner will matchup against a league runner-up.

10.3 The 4 league winners will comprise one pot, the 4 runners-up another pot.

10.4 The 4 league winners in Pot 1 will each be assigned a new colour (green, blue, white or black) IN THIS PRE-DEFINED ORDER based on ranking at the end of the league stage. Ranking will be decided upon: clashes won, then matches won, then games won, then games won vs. games lost.

Therefore, the highest ranked league winner = GREEN; the next highest = BLUE; the next highest = WHITE; and the final league winner = BLACK

10.5 The 4 runners-up will be ordered alphabetically. It will be identified at this stage the colour of the QF matchup to which each runner-up cannot be matched being that they contested in the same league.

10.4 The draw, again held live in the lobby, will then use the following procedure:

- The TD will create an open (dummy) 2P US game vs. a random bot, with the game title being that of the first runner-up alphabetically.

- Without selecting destination tickets, and therefore not initiating a game, the TD will allocate the team to its quarter-final pairing based on the colour of the first (top-most) of the 5 coloured face-up train cards on display on 'the table' (not the 4 coloured cards on view to the TD and observers).

- In the event of either: a loco, a colour not being used for the QF draw, a colour not permissable, or a colour representing a quarter-final matchup to which a team has already been allocated, the TD will use the colour of the next (moving top to bottom) coloured train card to allocate a team to its matchup.

- In the event of further unavailable colours/leagues, the TD will allocate using the third coloured train card, and then using the fourth card and finally the fifth.

- If none of the five coloured train cards on 'the table' allow for appropriate allocation of a team to a respective QF matchup, the TD will quit the dummy game and repeat the process until the team is allocated to a matchup.

- This process will continue for all runners-up until each team has been appropriately allocated a permissble QF matchup.

10.5 It may be, that before the conclusion of the live draw, teams are automatically matched due to the restrictions as set out by the rules. In this case, the draw will conclude.

10.6 Quarter-final clashes will continue to be 2-legged: one 'home' match and one 'away' match.

10.7 Quarter-final clashes will takes place within a two clash-week period (16 days, Saturday to 2nd Sunday), although this could be quicker at the discretion of all Captains and the TD.

10.8 Captains will have the opportunity to present lineups for both clashes separately, i.e. the second lineup can be presented to the TD for publication after the conclusion of the first clash.

10.9 Quarter-final matches will be Best of 5 with the same rules as per the League stage, with one exception: ties no longer count. The victor of each match will be the player to reach 3 wins first.

10.10 The lower seeded team will have 'home' advantage in the first leg, the higher seeded team playing at 'home' in the second leg.

10.11 Rules for starting matches are identical to those in the League stage.

10.12 The winning teams will win at least 2 of the 3 matches.

11. Semi-final stage

11.1 The Semi-final stage will comprise 4 teams, the winners of the 4 Quarter-final clashes.

11.2 The fixtures for the Semi-Final stage will be preordained: Winner of the GREEN matchup will play Winner of BLACK; Winner of BLUE will play Winner of WHITE.

11.3 Semi-final clashes will be 2-legged as in the Quarter-final.

11.4 Semi-final clashes will take place within a two clash-week period, as in the Quarter-final.

11.5 Captains will have the opportunity to present lineups for both clashes separately.

11.6 Semi-final matches will be Best of 5 with the same rules as per the Quarter-final (ties do not count).

11.7 Semi-final matches will continue to be Best of 5.

11.8 The lower seeded team will have 'home' advantage in the first leg, the higher seeded team playing at 'home' in the second leg.

11.9 Rules for starting matches are identical to those in the League stage.

If TAM would make it to the final, I suspect I would be the odd person out - despite wanting to play. I would not be upset about giving the start to my teammates, but might prefer not to have to make a choice. The honor of making it so far is not so great if you have to watch all of the action and not participate.

On the other hand, we haven't heard from one of our teammates for a while *and* it is possible someone ends up being unable to make it to play. The result is - your final doesn't complete in that scenario since no sub is available that has not already played.

Still, I like the idea enough to submit the following idea:

All 4 players scheduled to play the final.
- If a player unable to play or 'disappears' during the final for whatever reason, the opposing team may choose the substitute.
- If a tie in matches 2-2, tie break is games won-lost, if tie there, then player on each squad with best tourney record play each other in a quick 3 game series with random start in games 1 & 3.

Round robin matches due to be completed by tomorrow. If possible, I'd like to do the draw for the QF on Friday evening (Euro time) and scheduling can begin immediately after. This knocks us back by a couple of days according to the schedule, but we'll be able to catch up, I'm sure.

Grats to Orange teams for completing your league. Cat and I will play the final match in Yellow on Thursday. 2 matches to complete in Red, and 1 in Purple. Contact me/Onyx ASAP if there is scheduling trouble.

Captains, what are your thoughts on Hecki's idea for all 4 team members to play the final?